


All The Wrong Places

by wrotemywayout



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I cant write angst tho so not really, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-23 17:38:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15611499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrotemywayout/pseuds/wrotemywayout
Summary: Soulmate AU in which everyone has a unique mark somewhere on their body shared only with their soulmate. Davey had given up looking for his soulmate when something in Jack’s sketchbook catches his eye.





	All The Wrong Places

**Author's Note:**

> for the tumblr anon who requested a soulmate au

David Jacobs was a hopeless romantic, in the sense that he’s literally given up hope.

Ever since he could understand what soulmates were he’d been dreaming of his. The perfect boy for him who’d make his life complete. The person who would make him whole. What would his name be? How would they meet? What would he look like?

He couldn’t wait for the day when he could feel what it felt to be in such deep love with someone, connected both through their hearts and the universe. He buried himself in love stories, tales of perfect meetings and flawless first dates. He fantasized about his wedding and his future with his soulmate.

He often stood shirtless in his bathroom, back to the mirror and neck craned to see the mark on his left shoulder blade. His soul mark. Two sets of intersecting parallel lines, creating a small square of space, filled in black. He studied the mark, anxiously anticipating the day he’d meet someone with the matching shape.

Race and Spot were lucky, discovering their matching marks at thirteen, much younger than average. Davey was happy for them! It was exciting that they were able to grow with each other, living their whole adult lives with their second halves.

He wasn’t bitter at all, really. Sure, he’d like to fall in love without the fear that his partner wasn’t his soulmate, damning their relationship from the beginning. He’d like to have someone to spend the rest of his life with. It just wasn’t realistic anymore. On average, people met their soulmate by twenty-two. Davey may only be twenty-one now and, yeah, he understands how averages work, so he knows that it isn’t impossible to meet his soulmate. But most of his friends have, most of his classmates and his coworkers have met theirs. He’s probably part of the three percent of people who never meet theirs. And he’s fine with that, really. He’d just continue covering his mark so nobody would ask, nobody would see.

Davey lived a good life. Go to classes during the day, sometimes work a shift at the coffee shop on campus, come home to the apartment he shared with Jack, his best friend since middle school. He had a routine he liked, and he’d like to stick with it. He really doesn’t have time for a relationship, soulmate or not.

“Davey! How was work?” Jack called from behind a canvas as Davey entered the apartment.

“Same as usual, except today some lady complained to my manager that the hot chocolate I made was too hot. Who even orders hot chocolate in May?” Davey, walked toward his bedroom, stripping off his uniform polo in exchange for a comfy tee shirt he found in his drawer, one of Jack’s old Beatles shirts. “Whatcha painting?” He asked as he returned to the living room.

Jack stepped back and looked at his canvas. “Nothing good, apparently. Fucking art school is sucking the art right out of me.”

“Is it an assignment?” Davey asked.

“Yeah, I’ve been working at it for like six hours now, and I ain’t close to done.” Jack scrubbed at the dried paint on his hands, despite knowing that it’d be stained there for days.

“You probably could use a break. Come sit with me, we can watch Queer Eye.” Davey said from the couch.

“Dave, you’re getting gayer and gayer by the day.” Jack stood from his stool and joined Davey, laying a blanket over the two of them.

“Strong words coming from the guy who was crying into my chest after the first episode.” 

“Hey, not fair.” Jack feigned offense. “It’s not my fault you have such a nice chest to cry into.”

Okay, so maybe Davey had a little bit of a crush on Jack. And maybe he has been avoiding finding his soulmate because nobody can compare to Jack. Maybe living with Jack is the most blissful Hell on Earth as he gets to revel in attention from his crush and still remain platonic. Maybe.

Because surely Jack wasn’t his soulmate, let alone interested. Sometimes he feels that he’s taking advantage of Jack’s friendship, as any time spent with Jack is time spent with his crush and Jack isn’t aware of Davey’s feelings. But Davey doesn’t let himself dwell for too long. There was no use. Maybe someday he would meet his soulmate and he and Jack can continue to be friends without guilt. Maybe someday Jack would meet his soulmate and Davey would learn how to move on.

Davey knew things were going downhill when he started to resent people who’ve found their soulmates. He knew it was a problem when he saw Race and Spot walk into their end of semester party at the bowling alley with their fingers entwined and he suddenly wanted to leave. When he wanted to throw Crutchie’s phone away when he saw him texting his long-distance soulmate who he met while on vacation in South Carolina. He was lonely.

He was lonely as he rented his bowling shoes; he was lonely as he sat alone on a bench, shoes forgotten, staring a hole into the wall. He was lonely as Jack sat next to him.

“What’s going on? You don’t look like you’re having a good time. Something happen?” Jack asked, concern clear on his face.

Davey shrugged. “Just not feeling well, I guess.” He didn’t even believe himself as he spoke, and it was clear Jack wasn’t buying it either.

“Do you want to head home? Or maybe just step outside?” Jack was worried, as Davey isn’t one to shy away from a party. A party full of strangers, sure. But not amongst a group of their closest friends.

“Don’t worry about me, Jack. I’m fine.”

“Okay,” Jack said, “But I’m not going to be able to have fun if you’re not having fun. Don’t hesitate if you wanna talk or leave or whatever.”

Leave it to Jack to be completely understanding and perfect as Davey’s trying not to think about how understanding and perfect he is. Davey was miserable, he wasn’t used to not being able to talk to Jack about what was on his mind. But there was no way he could now, with Jack being the subject of all his thoughts.

He was destined to die alone.

Despite his worries and fears, David Jacobs was nothing if not resilient. He brushed the metaphorical dirt off his shoulders and continued business as usual. He and Jack have been best friends for so long, a stupid crush isn’t going to change that.

That is until one day when Davey walks into their living room to see Jack’s sketchbook open on the coffee table. Now, that is not uncommon. What threw Davey off was the subject of the sketch.

Two sets of intersecting parallel lines, creating a small square of space, filled in black. The same mark that Davey has on his shoulder. The mark that has been dictating all of Davey’s relationships for years.

How could Jack have seen it? Davey grew angry as he began to think about what level of invasion of privacy Jack would have had to reach to study his mark like that when Davey was constantly covering it. 

“Hey, you’re home,” Jack said as he walked out of the bathroom, wiping the excess water from his hands onto his jeans.

“Yeah,” Davey said distractedly. “When’d you see this mark?” Davey gestured to the sketchbook.

“What do you mean? I see it quite frequently seeing as it’s been on my body for quite a few years now.” Jack answered, obviously confused.

“No way.” Davey reached for the bottom of his shirt, pulling it off.

“Dave, what the fuck are you doing?”

“Jack, just,” Davey turned, exposing his shoulder to Jack. “Just look.”

“You’re kidding me.” Jack quickly moved across the room, reaching out to rub his fingers over Davey’s mark. “After all this time. I can’t believe it’s you.”

Davey turned, his eyes filling with tears as he made eye contact with Jack for the first time since the revelation. “We’ve been right in front of each other this whole time.”

“Would now be a good time to tell you that I’m, like, totally in love with you?” Jack asked, unable to suppress his grin.

“Now would be perfect.” Davey leaned forward, connecting their lips and causing the most blissful sensation either boy had ever experienced. When they separated they couldn’t bring themselves to truly part, resting their foreheads together.

“You know,” Davey whispered as if he was afraid his voice would break the purity of the moment, “for a while I was convinced I would never find my soulmate. I was so in love with you that I figured I shouldn’t bother to look.”

“Turns out you were looking in all the wrong places.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this please consider leaving a comment! If you have any requests I'd gladly accept them here or on my tumblr, little-bit-of-cinnamon


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